Emirates lays off hundreds of pilots and cabin crew: Sources
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DUBAI • Emirates laid off more pilots and cabin crew yesterday in the second day of redundancies at one of the world's biggest long-haul airlines, three company sources said.
An Emirates spokesman declined to comment beyond the airline's statement on Tuesday which said some employees had been laid off. No further details were provided.
"Given the significant impact that the pandemic has had on our business, we simply cannot sustain excess resources and have to right-size our workforce in line with our reduced operations," the spokesman told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Dubai-based carrier laid off hundreds of pilots and cabin crew on Tuesday in a bid to stave off a cash crunch caused by the coronavirus pandemic, sources told Reuters.
More redundancies were expected this week, including both Airbus A-380 and Boeing 777 pilots, the sources said on Tuesday.
The workforce of 4,300 pilots and nearly 22,000 cabin crew could shrink by almost a third from its pre-coronavirus levels, three of the sources said.
Aviation is one of the industries worst hit by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with airlines around the world laying off staff and seeking government bailouts.
The state carrier said last month that a promise by the Dubai government to provide it with new equity would allow it to "preserve its skilled workforce".
Emirates has since said that it could take it up to four years to resume flights to all 157 destinations that the carrier flew to before the pandemic.
The airline has operated limited, mostly outbound services from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since grounding passenger flights in March, but is due to restart some connecting flights this month after the UAE lifted a suspension.
Emirates Group, the state holding company that includes the airline, has also seen layoffs at its airport services company, dnata.
Emirates has extended pay cuts until September, and in some cases deepened the reduction to 50 per cent, according to an internal e-mail on Sunday.
REUTERS
